Fluorescence-based analysis has become a powerful tool in scientific research, clinical diagnostics and many industrial applications. However, while fluorescent organic molecules such as fluorescein and phycoerethrin are used frequently in fluorescence detection systems, there are disadvantages in using these molecules separately or in combination. For example, photobleaching (fading of intensity under light sources) is a major problem that hinders the accuracy of quantitative measurements made using these molecules. In addition, each type of fluorescent molecules typically requires excitation with photons of a different wavelength as compared to that required for another type of fluorescent molecules due to the relatively narrow absorption spectrum of each. Moreover, even when a single light source is used to provide a single excitation wavelength, often there is overlapping or insufficient spectral spacing between the emissions of different fluorescent molecules to permit individual and quantitative detection.
Semiconductor nanocrystals are now being evaluated as a promising tool of nonisotopic detection to replace conventional fluorescent molecules. Since the spectral emission characteristics of nanocrystals are a function of the size, nanocrystals produced in a narrow size distribution can be excited to emit a discrete fluorescence peak of narrow bandwidth. In other words, the ability to control the spectral characteristics of nanocrystals (narrow bandwidth, discrete emission wavelengths, a single wavelength can excite an array of nanocrystals with different emissions) is the major attracting point in their use. Another advantage of the nanocrystals is their resistance toward photobleaching under intensive light sources.
Examples of semiconductor nanocrystals are known in the art to have a core selected from the group consisting of CdSe, CdS, CdTe (collectively referred to as “CdX”) (see, e.g., Norris et al., 1996, Physical Review B. 53: 16338-16346; Nirmal et al., 1996, Nature 383: 802-804; Empedocles et al., 1996, Physical Review Letters 77: 3873-3876; Murray et al., 1996, Science 270: 1355-1338; Effros et al., 1996, Physical Review B. 54: 4843-4856; Sacra et al., 1996, J. Chem. Phys. 103: 5236-5245; Murakoshi et al., 1998, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 203: 225-228; Optical Materials and Engineering News, 1995, Vol. 5, No. 12; and Murray et al., 1993, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115: 8706-8714; the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference), and ZnS (Kho et al. 2000, Biochem. Biophys. Research Commun. 272: 29-35).
As known in the art, a manual batch method may be used to prepare semiconductor nanocrystals of relative monodispersity (e.g., the diameter of the core varying approximately 10% between quantum dots in the preparation), as has been described previously (Bawendi et al., 1993, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115: 8706). Advances in nanocrystal core production and improvements in narrowing the particle size distribution, the controllability of particle size, and the reproducibility of production have been achieved by a continuous flow process (U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,912, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference). Core semiconductor nanocrystals, however, exhibit low fluorescence intensity upon excitation, lack of water solubility, lack of surface functional groups for linking with target molecules, and additionally, susceptibility to dissociation and degradation in aqueous environments with high ionic strength. The low fluorescence intensity has been ascribed to a leak of exciton to the outer phase, to the presence of surface energy states that act as traps which degrade the fluorescence properties of the core nanocrystal, or to intermediate states of non radiative relaxations.
Efforts to improve the fluorescence intensity involve passivating (or capping) the outer surface of a core nanocrystal in order to reduce or eliminate the surface energy states. Inorganic materials with higher band gap energy have been used for passivation; i.e., core nanocrystals have been passivated with an inorganic coating (“shell”) uniformly deposited on the surface of the core nanocrystals. The shell which is typically used to passivate CdX core nanocrystals is preferably comprised of YZ wherein Y is Cd, Hg, or Zn, and Z is S, or Se, or Te. However, these passivated semiconductor nanocrystals have been reported to have a limited improvement in fluorescence intensity (with reference to quantum yield), and to have solubility in organic solvents only. Organic molecules, such as tri-n-octyl phosphine (TOP) and tri-n-octyl phosphine oxide (TOPO) have been also used to coat nanocrystals (see Murray et al., 1993, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115: 8706-8714, Hines and Guyot-Sionnest 1996, J. Phys. Chem. 100: pp 468, Dabbousi et al., 1997, J. Phys. Chem. 101: 9463). Coatings with these molecules have been reported to produce limited improvement in fluorescence intensity, and provide the coated nanocrystals with solubility only in organic solvents. Furthermore, the molecules coating the nanocrystal are easily displaced by different solvents.
To make fluorescent nanocrystals useful in biological applications or detection systems utilizing an aqueous environment, it is desirable that the fluorescent nanocrystals used in the detection system are water-soluble. “Water-soluble” is used herein to mean sufficiently soluble or suspendable in an aqueous solution, such as in water or water-based solutions or buffer solutions, including those used in biological or molecular detection systems as known by those skilled in the art. Particles and surfaces may also be characterized by their ability to be wet by a fluid. The fluid may be water or a solution of water and other liquids like ethanol. One method to impart water-solubility or wettability to semiconductor nanocrystals (e.g., CdX core/YZ shell nanocrystals) is to exchange the overcoating layer of TOP or TOPO with a coating, or “capping compound”, which will impart some water-solubility. For example, a mercaptocarboxylic acid may be used as a capping compound to exchange with the organic layer (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,038, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference; see also, Chan and Nie, 1998, Science 281: 2016-2018). The thiol group of monothiol capping compound bonds with the Cd—S or Zn—S bonds (depending on the composition of the nanocrystal), creating a coating which is to some extent not easily displaced in solution, and imparting some stability to the nanocrystals in suspension.
Another method to make the CdX core/YZ shell nanocrystals water-soluble or wettable is by the formation of a coating of silica around the semiconductor nanocrystals (Bruchez, Jr. et., 1998, Science 281: 2013-2015; U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,479) utilizing a mercapto-based linker to link the glass to the semiconductor nanocrystals. An extensively polymerized polysilane shell has been reported to impart water solubility or wettability to nanocrystalline materials, as well as allowing further chemical modifications of the silica surface.
Depending on the nature of the coating compound, coated semiconductor nanocrystals which have been reported as water-soluble may have limited stability in an aqueous solution, particularly when exposed to air (oxygen) and/or light. For example, oxygen and light can cause mercapto-based monothiols used in capping and passivation of nanocrystals to become catalytically oxidized, thereby forming disulfides which destabilize the attachment of the coating and might even play a role in oxidizing the core semiconductor (see, e.g., Aldana et al., 2001, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123: 8844-8850). Thus, oxidation may cause the capping layer to migrate away from the surface of the nanocrystals, thereby exposing the surface of the nanocrystals resulting in “destabilized nanocrystals” that eventually form nonsolubule aggregates with low fluorescence intensity. In addition, current means for passivating semiconductor nanocrystals are still rather inefficient in increasing the fluorescence intensity to a level desired for detection systems (e.g., in providing a significant increase in sensitivity in fluorescence-based detection systems as compared to currently available fluorescent dyes).
As is evident from current progress in the process of producing semiconductor nanocrystals, it is important to supply the nanocrystals with a stable, and protective capping layer to achieve the desired combinations of properties. In other words, it is desirable that the capping layer be designed in such a way that it is able to impart to the semiconductor nanocrystals improvement in fluorescence efficiency (quantum yield); water solubility; stability in aqueous solutions; stability in media with high ionic strength; resistance to the exposure to hostile environment with light, oxygen and ions; and the ability to bind ligands, molecules, probes of various types, and solid supports. Additionally, there remains a need for a nonisotopic detection system which results in generation of a signal comprising fluorescence emission of high intensity; can result in signal amplification; is not limited as to the chemical nature of the target molecule to be detected (e.g., versus detection of nucleic acid molecules only); can be used to bind molecular probes of various types (affinity molecules, oligonucleotides, nucleobases, and the like); and can result in simultaneous detection of more than one type of target molecule by utilizing a class of nonisotopic molecules that may be excited with a single excitation light source and with resultant fluorescence emissions with discrete fluorescence peaks that can be spectrally distinguished from each other (e.g., using detection means for fluorescence that is standard in the art).
It is an object of the present invention to provide fluorescent nanocrystals which provides a combination of properties including a significant enhancement of fluorescence intensity, water solubility, physical and chemical stability, and functionalization.